Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsToro Rosso

Verstappen accuses Grosjean of brake test

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Max Verstappen has accused Romain Grosjean of brake testing him, causing his heavy accident in the Monaco Grand Prix.

Having been climbing through the field on new supersoft tyres, Verstappen was fighting Grosjean for tenth place when he hit the rear of the Lotus approaching Ste Devote. With Verstappen's front left suspension broken by the contact, he hit the wall head on at high speed, but was able to get out of the car unaided.

Saying he was uninjured in the incident, Verstappen blames Grosjean for changing his braking point substantially.

"The thing was, I braked in the same spot the lap before and he clearly braked ten to fifteen metres earlier," Verstappen said. "If you are that close to each other you have no room and you can't go anywhere. That really caught me by surprise."

Asked by NBC Sports' Will Buxton if he thought Grosjean brake tested him, he replied: "Kind of. He was for sure braking ten to fifteen metres earlier...

"It's very dangerous and for sure I will be a bit sore tomorrow."

The stewards did not agree with Verstappen, handing him a five place grid penalty for causing the collision.

Click here for a gallery of Max Verstappen's crash with Romain Grosjean during the Monaco Grand Prix

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.